New Delhi | Chief Election Commission OP Rawat on Tuesday raised questions over the BJP led NDA governments idea of simultaneous assembly and parliamentary elections.
Speaking to media over the ruling governments claim that simultaneous polls will be cost-effective OP Rawat said that effectiveness of simultaneous polls in cutting cost will need to be studied before it is established. Rawat said,”Actually, not much exercise (study) has been done on this. The issue has many dimensions.” He further added that “Initially, it will require more money to procure so many machines (voting and paper audit trail machines). It will require more warehouses to store these machines
Rejecting the opposition’s opinion on simultaneous polls, Rawat clarified,” One-nation, one-poll was borne out of a “status quoist” attitude and simultaneous polls did not pose any threat to the federal freedom.”
When asked about the total cost for the implementation of simultaneous polls Rawat said that the required Constitutional amendments are in place for simultaneous elections, the government will have to provide the logistics. He said,”The logistics include the EVMs, CAPFs (central armed police forces), vehicles, polling personnel… Because wherever we go, the parties tell us to deploy central police forces. They say they don’t have faith in the state police.”
Rawat further informed that the Election Commission would need around 30 lakh EVMs (electronic voting machines) and VVPATs (voter verifiable paper audit trail) if polls to the Lok Sabha and all the state Assemblies were to be held together. “I can’t tell the exact number (of machines needed). But tentatively we will need 30 lakh machines. Right now, we are managing with around 20 lakh machines. We use 10 lakh machines for Lok Sabha and two-three lakh for the states going to the polls along with parliamentary polls. The remaining machines are kept in reserve. But if you are holding it all at the same time, it means 20 lakh machines, plus the reserve ones,”informed Rawat.
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